(Ada) We're going to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

(Isabelle) The salamander capital of the world.

(Kaylee) We went into the woods to find salamanders... - Oh, there's one.

(Kaylee) To collect some data.

(Ada) We learned so much.

- Yeah.

(cheerful music) - Major funding for "Sci Girls" is provided by the National Science Foundation.

Supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation, where discoveries begin.

Additional funding is provided by the PPG Foundation which aims to bring color and brightness to communities around the world.

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) We need you!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) Come on!

(girls) ♪ When I need help and I've got a question ♪ ♪ There's a place I go for inspiration ♪ ♪ Got to get to the web, check the girls' investigation ♪ ♪ What girls?

♪ ♪ SciGirls!

Whoo!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S (Izzie) I need you!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S Come on!

♪ You've got to log on, post ♪ ♪ Upload, pitch in Yeah!

♪ Want to get inside a world that's fascinating?

♪ ♪ The time is right 'cause SciGirls are waiting ♪ (girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S ♪ (Izzie) We need you!

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S ♪ (Izzie) SciGirls!

[mellow music] [seagulls chirping] - Carrots, guacamole?

- [chuckles] Yes, please.

That's good.

[gasp] Jake, look, a turtle.

(Jake) Oh, he's so cute.

- Wow, he's so big.

- Oh, hey, I think he's hungry.

- [murmurs] - Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa-- wait a sec, Jake.

I'm not sure turtles can eat the same food as us.

- But look, I think he really wants some.

- [murmurs] - Yeah, maybe we should check with the SciGirls first, you know, before we invite this turtle to our picnic.

[upbeat music] ♪ Nope.

Nope.

Oh, cool.

Ooh!

Now, this could work.

♪ ♪ [laughter] [camera shutter clicks] ♪ ♪ (Kaylee) Today, we've been at Zoo Knoxville.

It's really fun to just go through the zoo with your friends and to talk about the different kinds of animals.

- Look at the otter.

His, like--[laughs] His little tail.

- [laughs] - I love snakes.

And it's so fun to be able to hold them.

They're just so cool.

They have, like, heat vision.

And they have all these different textures and patterns.

(Ada) The favorite thing I saw is the elephants.

I just love it because they're so big, and they're not found in North America.

[birds chirping] (Kaylee) I like the parakeets because it's just really funny, like, when they land on you.

It kind of tickles.

My name is Kaylee, and I'm 13 years old.

I definitely can see myself being a veterinarian or working with STEM one day in the future.

- My name is Isabelle, and I'm 13 years old.

- Oh, wow.

The sign says that they are amphibians.

(Isabelle) I think I'll definitely go into a field of science.

I'm very interested in microbiology.

- They don't have, like, fins or anything.

My name is Ada.

I am 14 years old.

- I wonder if they can see.

- That one just ran into a wall, so... - I've always wanted to study veterinarian science.

♪ ♪ [camera shutter clicking] Kaylee and Isabelle and I all go to the same co-op for homeschoolers.

And we've been taking classes for a couple of years now together.

They're eating the hay.

Zoo Knoxville, I've been coming since I was, like, a little baby.

They've changed it a lot, like, over the years.

They've brought in a lot of new animals.

- Oh, look at that.

Look at that.

- Oh, wow.

(Kaylee) The zoo has a new amphibian and reptile center, called the ARC.

And there's crocodiles and turtles and snakes and lots of stuff in there.

So it's really cool.

(Rachel) I'm really excited to share this with you.

(Isabelle) Today, we met Heather and Rachel.

They're herpetologists.

And a herpetologist is a scientist that studies reptiles and amphibians.

- So one of the things, you notice that in front of you, you've got a pair of gloves.

Amphibians are different from reptiles.

They actually breathe through their skin.

So anything that we have on our hands that is harmless to us could actually be really harmful to them, things like sunscreen.

So if you want to put your gloves on, that's going to be the safest way to handle the salamanders.

(Kaylee) Rachel brought in some salamanders that we got to get really close to.

(Rachel) This is one that you guys can hold if you'd like.

It is a blackchin salamander.

(Isabelle) Very wet.

- Yeah.

[laughter] - And very slippery.

(Rachel) Yeah.

(Isabelle) He keeps trying to crawl off my hand.

With being homeschooled, I have done classes here at the zoo.

It's very fun because you get to kind of see the behind-the-scenes stuff.

And we get to talk to the animals sometimes.

(Rachel) And then if you look under the chin, you can see why they are named like that.

And another cool thing about this species is that it's thought that they are mimicking the red-spotted newt, which can be found in a similar area.

But that's actually a toxic species.

But this one isn't actually toxic.

(Heather) With these guys, because they breathe through their skin, they are considered an indicator species for the environment.

And so they are really good at indicating whether there is an issue in the environment.

So a lot of times, people want to know, what can I do?

Are you ladies familiar with citizen science?

- Citizen science is just normal people going out and taking pictures and logging information for scientists to use.

(Heather) By doing citizen science, we get an opportunity to kind of see what the census is today.

And then 10 years, 15 years, we can look back and see if the population is staying the same.

Maybe we've even done such a good job that the population is growing and there are more of them than there used to be.

(Kaylee) Heather and Rachel told us about the Great Smoky Mountains.

And they said that we should go there to learn more about citizen science involving salamanders.

(Heather) The Great Smokies National Park is basically in our own backyard.

And the Smokies are one of the best places to study salamanders because there is more natural variety in species than you will find pretty much anywhere else in the world.

The salamander diversity in the Smokies is just amazing.

And I would really like for you ladies to go to the Smokies and see what you can learn about salamanders.

And we would love for you to teach us some things.

- So are you guys ready to do a citizen science project here in the Smokies?

(girls) Yeah.

- It feels really exciting to be able to go and, like, find out and collect data about the salamanders.

♪ - My name is Isabelle, and I'm 13 years old.

♪ ♪ This is my dog Zoey.

She's two years old.

And she's a Great Pyrenees.

This is my dog Loki.

And we've had him for about a year.

I live with both my parents and my five siblings.

This is my room.

This is one of my bookshelves.

I really like to read.

I'm constantly getting more books.

These are my art supplies.

I really love to paint.

I do time-lapses almost every time I paint.

And I recently painted a giant canvas, like, almost as tall as me.

[applause] Bye.

See you next time.

[upbeat music] ♪ (Ada) I've been to the Great Smoky Mountains a couple times.

[laughter] It has a lot of valleys with a lot of creeks.

(Kaylee) Everywhere you look, all you see is mountains and trees.

And it's just so beautiful.

(Isabelle) The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is just a wonderful place because there's so many different species of animals and plants and bacteria and fungi.

And there's so many different places to explore.

- Hi.

- Hi.

- Welcome.

(Isabelle) We met Ranger Nicole in the park today.

(Ada) She works for the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

- I love it that you guys are out here even though it's raining.

It rains a lot out here.

We are in a temperate rain forest.

So we get 80 inches of rain a year.

♪ (Isabelle) The Great Smoky Mountains, it rains, then it's sunny, then it rains again.

And it's always this weird, unpredictable mixture of different kinds of weather.

♪ (Ada) They are called the Great Smoky Mountains because mist comes up in the morning, and it looks like smoke.

(Nicole) The Great Smoky Mountains is the salamander capital of the world.

We have at least 30 species of salamander that live here.

- I have lived in Tennessee my entire life and had no idea that we had the most salamanders in the world-- like, the most different species.

So that was interesting to learn.

- What we're going to do today, we'll be looking at the terrestrial salamanders because we'll be looking at the ones on land.

- Well, I've never, like, caught the salamanders.

I've seen the salamanders in the wild.

- As we are looking for salamanders, they have a really cool adaptation.

You be a raccoon.

Use your little paws, and try to catch my salamander.

[laughter] - And the tail comes off.

- And they can drop their tail.

So when they get spooked, they can drop their tail.

And that will help them to survive.

But we don't want them to drop their tail because this is where they have their food storage.

So to not freak them out is really important, even though they have that adaptation.

♪ ♪ Great Smoky Mountains is half a million acres.

We do many citizen science programs.

There are a lot of different bio indicator species.

(Isabelle) We were examining the salamanders to make sure that the ecosystem around them was healthy.

♪ (Kaylee) We went into the woods hoping to find salamanders.

♪ ♪ It was beautiful, but it was just really, really cold.

[laughs] - It was pouring the whole time.

[laughs] (Ada) It was very muddy and wet.

I stepped in a lot of puddles.

(Nicole) All right, extra puddly here.

(Isabelle) Ranger Nicole told us that the salamanders really like damp, cool spaces.

(Nicole) Okay, this is going to be a team effort on a roll.

- And she kind of let us pick out which areas to look under, which was really fun, because we got to kind of lead her, almost.

- Okay, who's got the bag?

(Ada) It was just, like, really cool, because you don't get to go looking for salamanders.

Since they're such sensitive creatures, you have to have special permits, have a park ranger with you.

(Kaylee) Nicole was really helpful, making sure that we didn't go off too far into the woods so that we didn't damage any of the leaves and foliage.

So we were walking through the woods, and we found a log.

And it was in kind of a puddle of water.

And then we flipped it over.

- Look, there's one right there.

- And we were like, oh, my gosh, there's a salamander.

Like, it's actually there.

(Isabelle) Ranger Nicole helped us observe the salamanders safely.

Well, she told us not to touch them because they're very sensitive, and they breathe through their skin.

(Kaylee) You have to, like, handle them with a Ziploc bag, in our case, or a leaf or a stick or something that they've already had around them that won't hurt their skin.

- Okay, so hold him above your head so that-- but keep him flat, yeah.

(Isabelle) Ranger Nicole was almost as excited as us.

[laughs] 30 millimeters.

(Nicole) Perfect.

(Isabelle) Seven, right at seven.

(Nicole) Seven what?

(Kaylee) Ounces?

(Isabelle) Grams.

(Nicole) Very good.

- The second salamander was also under a log.

I was surprised that we found two in such a close area together.

- Where'd he go?

Where'd he go?

(Isabelle) We all kind of worked together.

And one of us held open the bag.

And the other, like, just stood behind the salamander.

We're just like, let's get it into the bag.

- Oh, oh.

- Got him.

- That's the same kind as last time.

Oh, wait--no?

- No.

- No, it isn't.

It has red on it.

- It has red on its cheeks.

- Ooh, all right.

Let's go look at those pictures.

- So when we found the salamanders, we would put them in our Ziploc bag, and then we would take them back to the identification sheet.

And we would look through the identification sheets and find which one best, like, matched the salamander that we had in our bag.

- Bluish-black?

- Yeah.

- Red, orange, or yellow cheek?

- Yeah.

- That's what it is.

- Gray or black bellies?

- Yes.

(Nicole) Very good.

That is a Jordan's redcheek.

(Isabelle) It was 45 millimeters.

4 and 1/2 grams.

- All right, it's really coming down.

Let's get out of this rain.

[laughs] - The salamanders love it.

[seagulls calling] - So we learned something new today.

It is not okay to share your food with animals.

- Not even your healthiest snacks.

Besides, they have their own beach buffet right here-- algae, plants, jellyfish, - Jellyfi-- jellyfish, over there!

- Uh-oh, that's a plastic bag.

- Oh, no.

Garbage?

- Phew, I'm so glad we found this before the turtle did.

- Here, I always bring my own trash bag to the beach.

[light music] Ouch!

- This shell looks like an ice cream cone.

[laughs] - Yeah, or a tiny hat.

[laughs] I'm going to clean it and put it in my room.

- [gasp] It's a snail!

Hey, buddy.

- Oh, I'm sorry, little guy.

This is your house.

[sighs] I'll put you right back where I found you.

You know, we should spread the word about beach animal safety.

- Yeah.

What if we perform a rock and shell concert?

♪ Shells and rocks are homes to animals ♪ ♪ So please leave them at the beach ♪ Yow, whoo-hoo!

[seagull calling] What if we draw a message in the sand?

(Izzie) [sighs] Or not.

But that's it.

Let's make a big poster so everyone will see it.

Come on.

Let's get our supplies.

We've got creatures to protect.

And these beach animals need us.

[soft music] ♪ - Is that a spider hanging in the middle of that?

(Isabelle) Today, we went to a stream in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to collect data on aquatic salamanders.

- Good morning.

So today we are going to be collecting aquatic salamanders to tell us more about the health of this creek.

- What's the difference between terrestrial salamanders and aquatic salamanders?

- Terrestrial salamanders means that they spend most of their life on land.

So they are coming in contact with the soil.

The aquatic salamanders are living in water.

Salamanders are one of many species that are bioindicators.

So the presence of certain types of salamanders that are there can be indicators of water quality.

What about them would make it special that they are telling us more about the surrounding ecosystem?

- They are very sensitive and breathe through their skin.

So if there's any pollution or anything, it harms them.

- Yeah.

They're really intolerant, which means that they can't really handle a lot of pollution.

Seeing them is one good indicator that water quality is good.

[upbeat music] ♪ (Isabelle) We were looking underneath rocks and decaying logs in the stream.

- So let's lift it really gently.

(Ada) We rolled them over so we can put it back where we found it.

Salamanders only have a certain amount of distance they can remember.

And so if you move it too far or you move them, it's really hard for them to get back.

- Oh, there's one.

Where'd it go?

- Whoa.

Where'd it go?

- Wow, that was really fast.

(Ada) It was a lot different looking for them in the water because they moved a lot faster.

And the current, because it is going down the mountain, it moves the salamanders with them.

So it's a lot harder to catch them.

(Nicole) And those might be better options, right, where the water isn't moving so quickly.

- It was very exciting when we found two.

- Oh, we got two.

- Two.

- Can I get two in one bag?

- [laughs] (Isabelle) We had tried to catch both of the salamanders at the same time, and they just both darted in different directions.

So it didn't exactly work out.

[laughs] (Kaylee) They were so fast that you would lift up a rock, and they would just shoot to the next one.

And the next thing you know, you've lost it, so... [laughs] - Can you see one?

- Mm-hmm.

I got him.

- Yay.

- Yay.

- We caught one little, tiny salamander.

And so we did get to collect some data.

- 14 millimeters.

(Kaylee) So we were looking at find, like, the weight and the length... - 6.7.

(Kaylee) Like, the color of it and the species.

(Isabelle) Spotted dusky salamander.

We only had the salamanders for as long as it took us to measure the data.

And that only took three minutes, at the most.

- Perfect.

- My favorite part was probably finding the salamanders and then letting them go.

- There he goes.

- So Ranger Nicole, what do we do with all of this data that we've collected?

- The Great Smoky Mountains has been doing salamander research for close to 20 years.

So a lot of that data gets put into data servers.

And we track that data over time.

The more people that are collecting information, the bigger sample size we're having.

So it helps with different actions that a park might do to either fix or not fix something that's happening here.

(Isabelle) Being involved in citizen science is really cool because I feel like I'm contributing to the scientific world and really helping people and animals.

(Nicole) Well, thank you, guys.

Good luck for your future in science, hopefully, or at least in citizen science and being a steward of the land.

(girls) Thank you.

♪ ♪ (Kaylee) Another thing we learned is that it's really important not to move the rocks, because that's a habitat.

And if we didn't have the salamanders, we wouldn't know, is this creek healthy or not?

- When you move the rocks and don't put them back, it, like, completely ruins animals' homes.

♪ ♪ [camera shutter clicks] [upbeat music] - Hi, my name is Ada.

I am 14 years old and in eighth grade.

♪ I have three sheep named Rose, Daisy, and Dandelion.

I showed the sheep last year.

I just showed Daisy because it's a really big hassle to show sheep because it takes a lot of time and effort to get them ready for the show.

This is Fenton, one of our cats.

I like to run.

I do AAU track and school track.

[stopwatch ticking] I'm pretty fast, and I run a 100-meter in about 14 seconds.

[bell rings] [cheers and applause] I like winning.

- Hi.

(girls) Hi.

- Well, welcome to Great Smokies.

I'm Becky Nichols.

I'm an entomologist here in the park.

And we're going to go into the natural history collection and look at some specimens.

- Okay.

- Okay?

Come this way.

(Isabelle) Ranger Becky is an entomologist, and that is a scientist who studies bugs.

♪ (Ada) Becky showed us a bunch of species of animals that were quite old.

(Isabelle) I was very excited when she showed us all of the salamanders and frogs.

- That's--oh, my goodness.

- Oh, wow.

- That's crazy.

- We have 31 different species of salamanders in the park.

So you have all the different families represented here, including Cryptobranchidae, which are the hellbenders, the largest salamander that we have.

- The eastern hellbender is a salamander that lives up in the Great Smoky Mountains.

It is one of the largest salamanders there are.

- All right, this is a hellbender.

(Kaylee) When was it collected?

(Becky) This is 1936.

(girls) Wow.

(Ada) It was really fun being able to see them up close, because you don't, like, find hellbenders, like, where we were looking for them because it was such a shallow creek.

- Well, we'd found that the number of hellbenders has gone down.

And so we do everything we can to make sure the water quality is good and that there's no disturbance to their habitat.

- We're doing a presentation on salamanders at the Knoxville Zoo soon.

Do you have any advice for us?

- It's really important that you collect the data that you're going to be presenting and make sure that it's very, very accurate.

Data that we see, like on specimens here in the collection, that data could be really important in the future.

Citizen science can be a part of that as well.

We let the public know what species we're looking for information on, and they will make an effort to go out and document those species.

So good luck on your presentation, and have fun at the zoo.

(girls) Thank you.

[upbeat music] - Hey, my name is Kaylee, and I'm 13 years old.

I live in east Tennessee, in a really rural area.

And our trampoline and our backyard.

I live with my three siblings-- two brothers and one sister-- and my parents and my 16 pets.

I have a bearded dragon named Lava, and I have a dog and a cat, Lucky and Speckles.

[cat meows] And then nine chickens-- they all have names, but I won't say them all-- and lots of leopard geckos.

I ride horses.

And the horse I usually ride, his name is Dakota.

It's just really fun.

I do it once a week.

Right now, it's not competitive.

But it might be in future, so... [laughs] Ready?

Go.

- [screams] - Whoo!

[laughs] - [laughs] (Ada) So we like coming to Kaylee's house because she has, like, such an awesome backyard.

(Kaylee) My backyard has a zip line, and we went down that zip line probably 30 times today.

[light music] (Ada) Today we are working on a project that we will be presenting at the zoo.

- I had the idea that we could do six minutes and do three topics and have two minutes for each of our topics.

So the topic of our presentation is citizen science and how you can be involved in it.

- We could do a slideshow.

- Okay.

Yeah, a slideshow would be good.

- We are currently working on a slideshow that is talking about citizen science.

We're focusing on how everyone can participate in citizen science and especially about salamanders.

- Isabelle, these are, like, really good drawings.

- We made bookmarks to go with our presentation.

And I did the drawings and helped with the writing part.

[upbeat music] ♪ The most challenging part was trying to, like, coordinate who would do this and who would do that.

Citizen science is when-- (Kaylee) I think we've got it all figured out, like, what we're going to say and the slideshow that we're going to make and all of that stuff.

So I'm excited.

(Ada) I am really excited for presenting it 'cause we've learned so much and, like, just being able to share that with everyone.

- Okay, now all I think we have to do is just print these out, and then we'll be ready for our presentation tomorrow.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- How about a high five?

- Wait.

- No-- [laughter] - Yes, we're finished!

[upbeat music] (Kaylee) Today we're at the zoo.

And we're going to give a presentation on citizen science and salamanders to our families and friends.

We have been working with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and Zoo Knoxville.

- I feel like we worked as a team really well.

Like, we helped each other out.

Make observations to help researchers collect data.

- I learned that there's a lot more different types of salamanders than I ever knew about.

- We also made some bookmarks which remind you how to safely collect observations.

- I'm really looking forward to seeing what my own kids are interested in doing with citizen science.

- More about salamanders and, um-- It was really fun presenting to everyone.

With Heather and Rachel there, it just felt really special, just them teaching us everything and then, like, showing up just, like, to see what we've learned.

(Kaylee) I think Heather and Rachel really liked it.

I think they thought we did a great job.

(Heather) You guys learned some stuff this week.

I'm really proud of you.

(Rachel) I think there were a couple of times that you guys answered questions, like, exactly how we would have answered them.

And I think that's just reflecting just how much you guys learned.

- [laughs] We've definitely had some great mentors this week.

Orangey-brown.

(Ada) It's amazing seeing all the rangers and zookeepers' work, and, like, maybe I could do it too.

(Isabelle) I learned that everybody from all age groups can do citizen science.

And just whenever you find something amazing in nature, you can just put it out there and help researchers.

(Kaylee) Being able to just go behind the scenes of the zoo and the Great Smoky Mountains, that was something that I think I'm going to remember for a long time.

And I'm just really glad I got to do it.

- Jake, our sign's working.

Everyone's leaving the shells where they found them and putting their garbage away.

[light music] [seagull chirps] - And no one is feeding the animals, even if they're asking for it.

[laughter] - Good landing.

[laughter] - Okay, you ready to go in the water?

- Let's go.

- Welcome to the Indiana Dunes... - National Park.

- You got this, Saloni!

(Desi) We actually have a project called the Dragonfly Mercury Project.

(Logan) Oh, I got a bug.

- Logan's got one.

- Oh, this is cool.

(girls) Welcome to Seward!

(Evie) We're surrounded by water and mountains.

- Y'all want to head out there?

- Sure.

- Yeah, let's go.

(Gracie) I'm really excited to do some citizen science.

(Indigo) We saw lots of different shells and plants.

- Whoa!

[laughs] (cheerful music) - Major funding for "Sci Girls" is provided by the National Science Foundation.

Supporting education and research across all fields of science and engineering.

The National Science Foundation, where discoveries begin.

Additional funding is provided by the PPG Foundation which aims to bring color and brightness to communities around the world.

[upbeat music] ♪ (announcer) There's more fun on the SciGirls website.

You can watch videos, play games, and look for creatures in the great outdoors.

See you soon at PBSKids.org.

(girls) ♪ S-C-I-G-I-R-L-S